Flow [Sokka - Book Two]

⚝Chapter Seven⚝

"Did you see that?" she asked Sokka.

"See what?"

The monster began to disintegrate, and Konno pointed at the man inside it. His arms moved as he tried to get the vines back together. "There's a man in the monster!"

He nodded and shouted, "There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!"

Katara twirled around and sliced the mask and head off of the monster with a might lash of the water whip. The head and mask fell, discarded, into the water, crumbling back into a bunch of vines. Aang flew toward the monster as it picked up Katara, and with a single blast of air, he blew the rest of the monster away to reveal a fat, leaf clad man. Konno stood up with Sokka's help, and they stepped toward the other two and the new man.

"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us?" Aang asked angrily.

The man dropped the rest of the vines around him. He looked confused as he glanced around the small group. "Wait! I didn't call you here."

"We were flying over, and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land," Aang said.

"He's the Avatar," Sokka said with a shrug. "Stuff like that happens to us - a lot."

"The Avatar!" the man exclaimed. "Come with me."

Everyone dropped their combat stances. Sokka stepped forward with his hand resting on his machete, but Konno pulled him back by grabbing his hand in hers. Her heart suddenly picked up speed as he laced his fingers through hers unintentionally. Aang seemed to want to follow this strange man. She gestured to the Avatar.

"I don't trust this man," Sokka whispered to her. "Do you see what he's wearing?"

"The others wore stuff like this," she answered. She really wanted to take her hand out of his, but he had an iron grip.

"Others?"

She nodded. "I found others a few days ago. They were wearing leaves over their private areas just like him."

"How long have you been here?"

Konno ducked her head away from a low hanging branch. She didn't really know how long she had been in the swamp. "A week or something? Maybe more. I don't know."

"Did you leave right after we did?"

"A day after you left."

He glanced at her before pushing vines out of their way. They trailed a few feet behind Katara and Aang and the strange man. "Have you ever . . . you know, tried again?"

"Tried to take my life?" she asked softly.

"Yeah."

"No."

"That's good!" he said encouragingly. He squeezed her hand.

"I guess." She climbed onto the exposed roots of the great tree at the center of the swamp with Sokka right after her. His hand pulled away from hers and brushed against the small of her back when he stepped up behind her. She took a step to the right, closer to Katara. Heat traveled up her neck. "I still miss them terribly, though."

"Well, of course," he said with a nod. "I wouldn't expect you not to miss them. It's been years since my mother died, and I still think about her everyday."

Konno glanced at his face. His eyes were downcast at that statement, but they lighted up when he saw her looking at him. "You lost your mom?"

"Yes."

"So, who are you then?" Katara asked. Her voice cut into their conversation, and they grew quiet.

"I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it." The strange man looked at Sokka with hard eyes. "Like this fellow with his big knife."